Teaching instructional communication to indigenous people in Alberta

Abstract

A sample (n = 114) of university students of indigenous origin participated in an empirical investigation of one‐way (monologue) versus two‐way (dialogue) models of speech communication. In the one‐way condition, subjects lectured to a group of their peers for a designated time; whereas, in the two‐way condition, subjects conducted a dialogue with a group of their peers for a specified time. The results indicated that (a) subjects communicated for less than the required time in the one‐way condition, but perceived the time to be longer than the designated time; and (b) subjects communicated for more than the required time in the two‐way condition, but perceived the time to be shorter than the designated time. The implications of these findings for teaching speech communication to indigenous students are discussed.

Key Terms:

• Dialogue
• indigenous people
• lecture
• monologue
• one‐way and two‐way models
• stage fright